About this Book

Reviews

The epic and intimate story of young Lillian Leyb, a dangerous innocent and accidental heroine

How do you make a dazzling,
compulsively readable novel out of such a tragic story? While a first glance at
the dust jacket suggests a laborious, dirge-like read, Amy Bloom immediately
takes the reader by the shoulders and spins him or her about-face from the very
first page. Her style is immediate, arresting, and finely-tuned. Her sentences
nail it every time, the details and tone are spot-on, and the results are by
turns energizing and devastating.

As the title suggests, Away is a story of leaving. Over and over again,
Lillian leaves people and places in search of a home that might not exist. Those
who offer her help, lodging or work, both honorable and terrible, appear as
bright flashes in a darkened room, their images burned in the reader's mind long
after they've disappeared. As Lillian leaves each character behind, Bloom spins
out a brief, fairy-tale-like ...

Amy Bloom is the author of two novels, two collections of short stories and one book of nonfiction. She has been nominated for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award and her stories have appeared in numerous anthologies.

She has written for many publications including the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, the Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, Slate, and Salon. A practicing psychotherapist for more than 20 years, she lives in Connecticut and teaches at Yale University.

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